Best android phone to be had for ~E350?

strobe

Hey kids, my trusty HTC One V seems to be finally losing it's fight. I've been partitioning SD's and chopping and changing roms amongst some other few tricks for a while but it just can't stand the heat any more and the brave little guy is too laggy these days.

So, I'm in the market for a new android phone. Looking to spend around E350ish, give or take. My current front runner is the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact. I like the size of her at 4.3 inches, having gotten use to my One V's 3.7 inch screen I think I'd find it hard to have anything much bigger. Also seems to have a pretty nippy processor and 2g of ram (up from .5G on the One V) should do me ok I think. Plus the battery performance is supposed to be fairly decent.

I was just wondering if firstly, anyone has a Z1 Compact and what are their experiences after having it for a time? Would you recommend it? Any issues? How does the battery perform for you in real life use? Do you get a full day, or more or less, under what kind of consistent usage?

Secondly, anyone have any alternative suggestions for phones I should be considering along side or above the z1?

Thanks in advance.

laoisfan

I have the Sony Xperia Z1 and I often get up to 3 days battery (stamina mode) as I typically use Nexus 7 when commuting to/from work and then around the home. When not using the tablet I often get 2 days out of the phone.

The compact won't have the same battery but I suspect you'll get up to 2 day possibly.

I'm typically using radio, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, a few News apps, Google Maps on my Z1. I try keep more of the heavy duty apps on my tablet if I can.

Carpenter

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057195395

I seen 1 and was amazed have a read of this

daytob

Having had the 1+1 for the past 2 weeks I cant see myself giving it up anytime soon. unless the 1+2 is going to be so much better.
if you can get this phone do it

strobe

Carpenter wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057195395

I seen 1 and was amazed have a read of this

daytob wrote: »

Having had the 1+1 for the past 2 weeks I cant see myself giving it up anytime soon. unless the 1+2 is going to be so much better.
if you can get this phone do it

Seems the business all right specs and money wise but think it might be a bit on the gigantic size for me.

Bulmers

i got z1 compact few months back and find it a great phone, i bought a nexus 4 previously but i dont like big phones, so this one is perfect, fits in hand / pocket - no probs.

I find the battery very good on it, i use it for work so its a busy phone with emails, calls, data syncing etc and i would get over a day out of it but i charge it every night - prob 40 - 50% left on it before charge at night.

Few small issues, you can read about these on the net anyway, some of the early models suffer from flash bleed, pics taken in low light dont come out very well, there are some workarounds to fix it but it depends really on how much of a issue this would be to you, normal daylight photos are fine and camera is excellent for those.

All z1s ( normal and compact ) come with a protective plastic layer over the screen and back, you cant really remove it but this can scratch easily - it's not the actual glass but a plastic carbonate covering they put on it - again not major issue as i have just put normal protectors on back and front so it's fine - but just something to be aware of.

Other than those minor issues i think, it's a great phone and i'm very happy with it, it's my first android device so am just getting use to that but i haven't noticed any performance issues, everything is slick and fast ( i came from iphone 4 / windows lumia 800 ).

I've had a look at the other mini's, htc one mini / samsung s4 mini and they are nothing in comparison to this phone spec wise, so in terms of a compact high end phone, i don't think there is anything really to compete with this at this size.

There's strong rumours a z3 compact will be announced early september aswell but there doesn't seem to be any major change other than the new z3 will have full 720p display i think

same ol sh1te

Nexus 5 is €350 on Irish play store

daytob

its not too big. i went from having a 5in zopo 980 to having this. and prior to that I had a few knock offs before that the htc one x and sensation. admittedly its not a 1hander phone for some apps but really if you are 1handing the phone you are probably doing something that you shouldnt be using the phone with anyways.
it takes a day or so to get used to. but it is an amazing piece of kit.

advertsfox

Only two options here really if you want a proper experience (especially if you change ROM's a lot). Second option is to save cash for an excellent phone that dozens of people on Boards can and will vouch for (including myself who has made 7 people buy them since they came out).

Nexus 5 16GB for €349.99 - https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_5_16GB_Black?id=nexus_5_black_16gb&hl=en

Moto G 4G 16GB for €200 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moto-16GB-Sim-Free-Smartphone/dp/B00ECBREB6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407916027&sr=8-2&keywords=moto+g+4g

joe_chicken

Get a Moto G. 4.5" display. Save €150.

vandriver

For a heavy user,the battery life on the nexus 5 is not great.I usually charge twice a day.
Apart from that though,its a fantastic phone.

Wynnie12

If you are passing through dublin airport terminal 1 anytime soon dixons has nexus 5 for €326 or moto g for €195

strobe

Bulmers wrote: »

i got z1 compact few months back [...] full 720p display i think

Thanks for that man. Having 50% battery left after a day of heavy use sounds awesome tbh. I'm usually in the red zone and plugging in as soon as I get home from work with moderate usage on my current one, and that's with a brand new OEM battery put in it a couple of months ago after the original one went south.

After searching around it turns out the plastic shatterproof easily scratchable layer comes off fairly handily with an exacto knife and a bit of fiddling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip2kei7BwkA, and the glass underneath is called Dragontrail glass and basically equivalent to Corning gorilla glass, in terms of hardness/scratch resistance. Only thing is there's no finger print proof (oleophobic) coating on it, but lots of options for adding your own coating around that seem to get good reviews. Reckon this will be the option (strip off the plastic and apply an oleophobic coating myself) if I go for the Z1c.

Think the z1c was going for 500+ when it came out initially, I'd imagine the z3c would be similar and it's a little more than I'd like to spend, so can't see myself waiting for it.

advertsfox wrote: »

Only two options here really if you want a proper experience (especially if you change ROM's a lot). Second option is to save cash for an excellent phone that dozens of people on Boards can and will vouch for (including myself who has made 7 people buy them since they came out).

Nexus 5 16GB for €349.99 - https://play.google.com/store/devices/details/Nexus_5_16GB_Black?id=nexus_5_black_16gb&hl=en

Moto G 4G 16GB for €200 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moto-16GB-Sim-Free-Smartphone/dp/B00ECBREB6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1407916027&sr=8-2&keywords=moto+g+4g

joe_chicken wrote: »

Get a Moto G. 4.5" display. Save €150.

I do like E150 in my pocket all right. Any issues with the Moto G in terms of lag, multitasking etc with the one G of RAM? Seems to be the minimum in terms of current gen smartphones. As was the 512MB of my One V when I got it, and didn't take a huge amount of time for that to prove unsatisfactory when I moved up to Jelly Bean from ICS and apps also started becoming more RAM hungry. Would be worried about finding myself in the same boat once android L roles out. How future proof is it likely to be? Would I be in the same position in 9 months time for instance?

vandriver wrote: »

For a heavy user,the battery life on the nexus 5 is not great.I usually charge twice a day.
Apart from that though,its a fantastic phone.

That's a bit worrying. I'd really like to be in a position where I don't have to worry about charging mid day.

Wynnie12 wrote: »

If you are passing through dublin airport terminal 1 anytime soon dixons has nexus 5 for €326 or moto g for €195

Thanks for the tip. I'll be there in a few weeks as it happens.

DoctorEdgeWild

Typing this on a Z1 Compact, very highly recommended by me at least. Echo everything said by a poster further up the thread, a really great phone so far.

Wynnie12

strobe wrote: »

Thanks for the tip. I'll be there in a few weeks as it happens.

Just make sure you go dixons T1 and not T2. For some strange reason phones seem to be €50 more expensive in T2